Among 1,200 Possible Planets, Some Seem Like Our Own

08 February 2011

STEVE EMBER: I’m Steve Ember.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: And I’m Shirley Griffith with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we tell about an American spacecraft that has a date with a comet. We hear the latest about a space shuttle commander whose wife continues to recover from a deadly gun attack. And we remember a sad anniversary. But first, the discovery of possible planets like our own.

STEVE EMBER: Last week, American space agency scientists announced the discovery of possible Earth-like planets. The announcement came from newly released information from the Kepler space-based telescope.

NASA scientists say the Earth-like planets are among one thousand two hundred thirty-five possible planets orbiting other stars that have been discovered so far.

The researchers say six new planets have been confirmed. But the Kepler mission’s chief scientist, William Borucki, says eighty percent of the possible planets will probably be confirmed in the coming months and years.

Before last week’s announcement, the total number of so-called exoplanets outside our solar system was just over five hundred. Mr. Borucki says that number increased, based on new information from the small part of the sky examined by the Kepler telescope.

WILLIAM BORUCKI: “Kepler looks at one-four-hundredth of the sky. If we had four hundred of these fields of view, we would see four hundred times that number of candidates.”